What Awaits Us in the Night
by Brood Mayran
Summary: After a botched rescue attempt, Jounouchi is turned into a vampire, and will soon learn things he never knew existed. Chapter 2 up: Adaeus, his new master, appears....(Appearance by fiction contest winner, Wingleader Sora Jade)
1. Default Chapter

Brood: Okay everyone! Here I am finally starting on the second of my fanfiction contest prize fics! This one has Wingleader Sora Jade's character, which I'm tentatively calling simply, "Sora Jade."  
  
Zutsokaki: Great. Let the baka onnas unite.... *Baka onna = stupid woman*  
  
Brood: Yeesh....I'm just gonna let him ramble all he wants. He just hates it when I start a new story. This one is for WSJ..... Muahahahhaaa..........................................  
  
Zutsokaki: Oooh boy. She's at it again.....  
  
~*~  
  
CHAPTER ONE  
  
~*~  
  
"HEY EVERYONE!!! WAIT UP!!!!" Yugi Motou jogged hurredly after his friends in the deepening sunset, laughing with the rest of them.  
  
Jounouchi was running up ahead, grasping one of Yugi's new Duel Monster's cards he'd gotten today, and thought it'd be just hilarious to play "Keep Away" with the rest of them with it. "The rest of them," being Anzu, Honda, Yugi, and Ryou.  
  
Anzu dashed up to Jou and lunged at the card, but Jou grinned cheekily and sidestepped her, and she barreled into a mailbox, laughing hysterically.  
  
"One down..." Jou said, grinning at the rest. Honda ran up and immediately jump-grabbed for it, but Jou ducked and pushed him over his shoulder to land on the mailbox Anzu had run into. He landed on top of it uncerimoniously on his backside, grinning and spinning to watch the rest of the "game."  
  
While Jou was flipping Honda over though, Yugi had snuck behind Jou, and in a daring move (for he didn't know if it would work or not), he began ticking Jou's sides. Jou wriggled and squeaked out, "No fair!" as Yugi did his dirty work.  
  
Jou had to reach down to try and grab at Yugi, but as his hands came down, the card came in reach and Ryou's hand shot out.  
  
"Yoink!" Ryou snagged the card and scampered back a few steps, grinning and laughing, and Anzu, Honda, and Yugi all joined in as Jou sweatdropped and let a huge smile crack his face.  
  
"Ahh, okay guys, ya got me....." Jou put one hand behind his head and Ryou handed the card to Yugi with a small bow and flourish.  
  
"Your card, Yugi-sama." Ryou said with a smirk, and Yugi grinned. The group then walked around a corner, onto the block where Anzu lived. They all said goonight to her as she trotted lightly up her front steps, the dark beginning to set in.  
  
It went like that, all of them going home one by one, promising to see each other tomorrow, until only Jou himself was left.  
  
"G'night Yugi! See ya later!" Jou waved as Yugi jogged inside the Kami Game Shop, waving back.  
  
He then turned his back and walked in the direction of his own home, two blocks off. Night was setting in very well now, and he knew that his dad wasn't going to mind him coming in late one little bit. In fact, his own father probably wasn't even home yet from boozing it up with his friends.  
  
Jounouchi sighed and continued along his way, now only about a block from his house.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
Jou's head snapped up immediately, and he spun around in the direction of the scream. It was definitely a woman, and definitely coming from an alley he'd just passed. Adrenaline rushing into his body, he kicked it into high gear and spun on his heels, running into the alley.  
  
If he was expecting to see a mugger holding a knife to a girls throat, taking her purse, he got a shock. In fact, he didn't even know what he was seeing for a moment. All was pitch dark, and he had to let his eyes adjust in the deeper dark of the alleyway. Then he saw a dark man hunched over the form of a woman lying in front of him, and he seemed to be reaching for her.  
  
"HEY! GET AWAY FROM HER YOU CREEP!!!" Jou yelled out, causing the man to start and turn towards him. The man was in a dark hooded cloak, so no face could be seen.  
  
Then, to Jou's sheer surprise and near horror, the man GLIDED towards him, holding his hands out. Suddenly though, before he could cry out, his surprise was clouded over with something deeper....it was a voice, in his head. The voice that wasn't his own told him to remain calm, and what was happening was perfectly normal. It said that he had to stand perfectly still, and that he would be left a greater being than he ever was before. Jou liked the sound of that, and his eyes drooped where he stood as the man advanced.  
  
The next thing he knew, he was lying on his back in the alley, and the girl was gone. His head was pounding and his whole body was shaking like it was a large mass of jelly.  
  
"What.........happened to me..." he muttered thickly as he attempted to sit up. His arms gave out under him and he fell backwards, and decided to lay there for a moment until he got his strength back.  
  
When he felt like he could make it, he staggered to his feet and shambled the rest of the way to his house. He leaned heavily against his front door as he fished around for his key. Limply pushing the door open after unlocking it, he noticed idly that his father wasn't home yet. He let his eyes wander to the clock, and surprise shot through him, waking him from his sluggishness.  
  
"It's FOUR IN THE MORNING!?!?!?!?!" Jou yelled in surprise. But that simple effort of that exclamation took more out of him than he thought, so he fell backwards for the second time that night onto the couch, and slept soundly.  
  
Outside his living room window, a voice laughed darkly.  
  
The next morning, Jou dragged himself off of the couch and looked up at the wall clock again. Groaning with the realization that he was running late, he hurried as best as he could in his tired and groggy state to get to school on time.  
  
Finally, half an hour later, he pushed himself out of the door with a piece of toast in his mouth. He took a late bus and barely made it before the school's gates closed, and he pulled himself to his classroom as if it were a horrible effort to do so.  
  
As he took his seat, Yugi leaned over. "Hey Jou...are you alright?"  
  
"Eh...? Ooh Yugi...yeah, I'm fine. Just didn't get much sleep...."  
  
"The puppy looks like he's been beaten...." came a jeering whisper from behind him. He normally would have a smart reply for Seto Kaiba, but he was just too out of it to snip back at him. And he knew that when he was too groggy to throw an insult at Seto, he was really out of it.  
  
"Pssstt...Jou....hey Jou...." Anzu was whispering down at him now, sitting at her double-desk with someone else. "Are you alright?"  
  
"Mmm? Yeah. I'm okay Anzu...really I am. Just didn't get enough sleep is all."  
  
"Okay, but did you at least remember your project outlines?"  
  
"What project, huh?" Jou almost fell over.  
  
Reaching over to her deskmate's side of the desk, she grabbed a piece of paper from the blonde girl's small stack and waved it in Jou's direction, trying not to grab the attention of the teacher who was currently writing something on the board. "This Jou! For our big semester project!"  
  
"Eek." Jou looked over at Yugi, who was his partner for the project.  
  
"Don't worry about it Jou, we can just scribble it up when we get together for our class time. We have the idea anyway," Yugi reassured him with a smile.  
  
Jou only nodded apologetically and sighed.  
  
The rest of the day passed similarily, with Yugi, Anzu, and Honda helping him at every step, and Seto hissing insults at him without Jou even thinking of one decent comeback.  
  
During the walk home, Jou was dragging his feet so much his friends were afraid he'd stumble.  
  
"See you later, Jade-chan! That was a good idea you had, I'll call you tonight!," Anzu called after her project parter, who'd walked with them a ways talking to her about it. She just turned down her corner, and waved goodbye. The others waved politely back, and continued walking, glancing worredly at Jou.  
  
"Jounochi, are you sure that you're okay?"  
  
"Sure Honda, I'm great. Don't worry about me." His hair seemed a bit limp, and his eyes a bit cloudy, but at these worried expressions from his friends, he tried to walk a bit taller.  
  
"Are you sure Jou, I mean, if you didn't get enough sleep last night...."  
  
"Yeah, that was it Yugi. I didn't sleep well." Actually, he wasn't entirely sure WHAT it was. He looked up towards the sky, thinking to himself. Last night, he just ended up passing out in that alley after he'd tried to help a screaming lady. No real explination, but when he'd gotten back up, he'd felt like crap and the lady and attacker were gone. It just made no sense whatsoever.  
  
Just then, the clouds moved aside and the sun peeped out, raining warmth on Jou and his friends. Jou suddenly felt nauseated though and paused, turning his face downcast again.  
  
Anzu came up behind him and touched his arm, and Jou tried to smile at her. "I'm okay, Anzu. Just let me catch a breath."  
  
She nodded, not moving from Jounochi's side as Honda and Yugi came back to them. They helped him home, despite his weak protesting, and they left him at the door. Jou wouldn't let them help him further than that. After letting himself in, he headed directly for the couch and fell over onto it, and for the second time, his eyes fell and he slept.  
  
Outside though, something was prowling. They smelled Jou coming home, and they knew that all they had to do was wait. They glanced hatefully upwards, and knew that they only had to wait a little bit longer.......  
  
~*~  
  
Brood: OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
Zutsokaki: YAWN! That was a sleeper if I ever heard it!  
  
Brood: Oi Zutso, go bob for french fries will ya? Alright everyone, we have the plot set up and ready to take off! What do you guys think happened to Jou, eh?  
  
Zutsokaki: Like she didn't make it painfully obvious already!!!  
  
Brood: *sweatdrops* Yeah yeah yeah you jerkface. Predictions and ideas welcome! Keep your eyes peeled for the next chapter coming later! 


	2. Adaeus and Katsuya

Brood: Yay! Another chapter! It seems like this first chapter was well handled...liked by reviewers and such...  
  
Zutsokaki: Pfffftttt........suureee.....  
  
Brood: *rolls eyes*  
  
Zutsokaki: Why don't you end it now and save all of the readers some physical pain?  
  
Brood: How about I GIVE you some physical pain?  
  
Zutsokaki: PLEASE! Reading this is enough!  
  
Brood: *ignores Zutsokaki and hums "Macavity" from CATS*  
  
Zutsokaki: *sighs* Here we go again......she saw CATS Sunday night in a theatre and she won't get over it......at least I'm not hearing "Memory" for the thousandth time. All I have to do though is wait for the OTHER baka onna who loves CATS to get here and my headache is all set.....*twitch*  
  
Brood: *absently presses "Post", glomping a Rum Tum Tugger plushie*  
  
~*~  
  
Jou fell into dreams as soon as he hit the couch. The images presented to his inner eye were cold and disturbing images that plagued his mind and his sleep.  
  
They seemed to be amorphus blobs swimming about his darkened conscious, and as they changed from one unintellegible shape to another, Jou felt more and more clammy and fevered.  
  
//Come to me......listen to the call......Jounochi.....awaken the darkness inside of you.............//  
  
His consciousness nearly jolted back into awakeness at that voice, but it's eerie calm seemed to keep him asleep. Beads of sweat poured down his face, and his features contorted in pain as the voice beckoned to him. The writhing blobs in his dark dreams seemed to press deeper and deeper into his subconscious mind, pushing, seeming to be looking for something there.  
  
Finally, after seemingly endless moments of mental agony and soothing odd voices, the probing blobs found two deep crimson marks, side by side. The bulging and slithering blobs separated in a split second, and the halves went into each of the deep marks.  
  
"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Shooting upwards, Jou sat stock still on the couch, holding his neck with wide, livid eyes. Panting heavily, he looked around. He realized suddenly that he felt much better. His tiredness and woozyness seemed to have passed.  
  
"H-heh...knew all that I needed was some rest..." Jou said in between shallow pants. When he finally caught his breath, he realized that he was hungry. Standing firmly, he strode towards the kitchen and got himself a bowl of cereal.  
  
As he ate it, he couldn't help but look around again. That's when he noticed something odd. None of the lights in the house were on. He hadn't turned them on when he got home, he just fell asleep. Yet it was around eleven at night, and he could see perfectly.  
  
"Well that's weird...." he muttered quietly as he munched.  
  
After eating, he still felt really restless, so he worked for a bit on the school project he and Yugi needed to do. When he realized that he couldn't concentrate on it for more than a few moments, he stood up and began pacing. He tried playing video games, but to the same effect. Seemed like blowing up zombies didn't hold that same rush as it usually did. He almost picked up the phone and called Yugi, but it was too late for anyone to be coming to the phone. Finally, after minutes of pacing and indecision, he stood by the window and looked outside.  
  
The light of the moon caught his eye almost immediately. His eyes widened and the gaze lengthened. Minutes passed, and he felt the undeniable urge to step outside. Forgetting his coat, seemingly in a daze, he began to head for the door.  
  
~*~  
  
"Perfect......." a dark voice murmured.  
  
".......Adaeus. What are you doing?"  
  
The owner of the voice, Adaeus, jumped a mile. "Madame Myaki! I didn't know you were there!"  
  
"That's your problem Adaeus. You're still second rate. You can't even sense when someone with greater power than yours is approaching."  
  
"So sorry Madame Myaki....I'll try harder to learn from you..."  
  
"You know Adaeus, when I made you, I thought you could keep up. I thought you'd do better. Tell me what you're doing right now before I UNmake you...."  
  
"Y-yes Madam....you see....I....uhh........" He faltered before the unyeilding gaze of his master, lowering his eyes.  
  
"Well SPIT IT OUT already Adaeus!"  
  
"I MADE ONE!!!!"  
  
With a cool, calculated anger, Madame Myaki murmured, "You.....MADE.....one Adaeus?"  
  
Adaeus nodded, hoping not to be exterminated by one of the Elders.  
  
After a quiet and extremely tense moment, Madame Myaki said, "Alright. Good. This is a test for you then. Train this one to be superior to yourself Adaeus. Teach them, guide them. Remember our no killing policy. We only take what we need...........I take it you won't be needing my guidance in this?"  
  
"N-n-no, your magnificence!" He was so utterly relieved he could have kissed her then. But that would have gotten him killed more quickly than his current situation could have.  
  
"Good. Do well........or ELSE, Adaeus.......funny...this place is familiar." And with that, the Madame Myaki disappeared into the shadows and the night. Adaeus breathed a sigh of relief and resumed watching his new protogè.  
  
//Come out............come to me............feel the call..............//  
  
~*~  
  
Opening the door quietly, Jou stepped outside. The door shut itself behind him, and he stood alone and silent on his front stoop. Looking around, he wondered what to do next. He felt better that he was outdoors, really. His gaze wandered back to the moon, and suddenly felt that he was hungry. In fact, it seemed like his bowl of cereal hadn't helped him at all, almost like it never even hit his stomach.  
  
Something felt different in his bones though. His eyes were keener, he knew that from the inside of his home. He reached back and pushed the hair out of his eyes, and realized that it hung lower over his face than usual. He could actually tuck it behind his ears! Confusedly doing so, he felt something tug at his insides. There was something....somebody near.  
  
Spinning around, his hair coming out from behind his ears and swishing, he saw a dark figure, stooped and gleaming, standing before him.  
  
There was silence for a moment, not exactly confused, but more tense than anything else. Jou felt as if he could at least listen to what this person had to say.  
  
But he said nothing. Instead, a pale hand was extended. Come...come....something on him seemed to say. Jou could not resist. He came up to the figure.  
  
"Good...good. You have the senses...Now come. I have much to show you tonight."  
  
Jou finally found his voice at the sound of this deep and penetrating one. "Senses? Show me? What are you talking about?"  
  
The man turned his face up to Jou, and he realized with a small thrill that his eyes were glowing dimly. On any normal day, this would have scared the living crap out of him, but for some reason, here, it felt natural.  
  
"You will learn what you've become boy. My eyes are like yours, I sense your small surprise....look." And with that, he drew a mirror from his long and sweeping coat and put it in front of Jou.  
  
What he saw surprised him more than seeing a pair of lit eyes could have. There was no reflection at all...except for the two nickel- sized dots of light side-by-side on the mirror, exactly where his eyes would have been."  
  
"My.....reflection....my eyes!"  
  
"Yes...yes boy! You have no reflection. The only indication of a person in front of that mirror is the two reflections of the small light our eyes give out. We must avoid them in the night when around others not like us....but in the daytime, our eyes appear normal."  
  
"Like us...." Jou faltered. No reflection..... last night in the alley.... "You attacked that woman, didn't you?"  
  
The man chuckled. "Yes yes...and when you decided to play hero, I thought I'd just give myself an extra little snack....only out of a whim, I did something a bit different with you. I MADE you......"  
  
"Made...me....into a vampire!?!?!" Jou nearly lost himself and his odd inunderstandable composure right there, and almost did, if his maker did not clamp a cold hand over his mouth.  
  
"Yes boy....you understand! That's good! And I am your master, Adaeus!" And with that, Adaeus fell into a sweeping bow, flourishing his hand. "And I never did catch your name......."  
  
Jou, for some reason, calmed again. Oddly, he gained back his calm when his fevered question was answered. It was like...being what he was gave him a sort of calm. "I'm....Jounouchi Katsuya."  
  
"Katsuya, is it? Sorry, Japanese names confuse me a bit...Katsuya IS your first name is it? And Jounouchi is your family name?"  
  
Jou nodded, ignoring the lack of respect made obvious in the use of his first name, and only when he'd just met his.......master. Something inside of him clicked. Why couldn't he call him Katsuya? He was his master now and all.....  
  
"Good good....Katsuya, come with me then. I'll show you yourself tonight!!" He strode out onto the walk as if on mist, and Jou followed, seeming to be in a daze once again. After ten minutes of striding, they came to the city park.  
  
"Here...here Katsuya, you will learn the skill used by all of our kind!"  
  
Just then, Jou's mind came back to him, as if his master has loosened the grasp upon it. "Wait....I have to DRINK SOMEONE'S BLOOD!!!???" His first real outburst of the night, it seemed to surpass the surprise that he was even a vampire in the first place. But at the sudden thought of blood, his stomach turned. To Jou, it seemed to be coming from a horrible mix of disgust and revoltion, and from his new inner being's excitement at feeding. Jou screwed his face up and gave his master a look of pure defiance.  
  
"Listen to me boy! If you are to survive, you are to feed! Now follow! We will find someone, there always IS someone!!" With that, the clamp over Jou's mind tightened again, the clamp that all vampire masters have, and dragged Jou away. He tried fighting for a moment, but realized that he just didn't have the power.  
  
Soon enough, they came upon a man sleeping on a bench, a newspaper draped over him.  
  
"Ahhh, a usual spot with me....there's always someone different here every night, but always, someone here..." Adaeus said with a smirk. "I will show you, and then we will catch something for you...." He knelt down, and Jou was forced to watch as his new master sunk his fangs into the sleeping homeless man's neck. He tried to look away but he couldn't, more than likely due to his master's mental lock.  
  
/Maybe it's because you like it, Jou....maybe you want to try it.../ a treacherous voice said inside of his mind said. Jou shook it away, and found some other way to rebel.  
  
"Is it just me, or do you like biting guys?"  
  
Adaeus raised himself from his meal. "BOY! You will learn NOT to talk back to your master like that! This time, I'll let you slide, it's only your first night! But next time, you won't be so lucky!" The man moaned lazily and slumped, obviously passing from only sleeping to all out unconscious.  
  
"He's dead?" Jou asked.  
  
"No, only sleeping deeply. We don't kill. It attracts unwanted attention towards us. Those two puncture wounds really give something away, even if the mortals don't want to admit it for awhile. In fact, that's why our hair grows when we are changed," Adaeus said with a dark smile, guesturing at Jou's hair. "To help us hide our marks...."  
  
Jou involuntarily smoothed some hair down the side of his neck and followed as Adaeus continued walking, giving one last glance to the homeless man on the bench. After a moment, Adaeus lifted his head into the air and sniffed.  
  
"Katsuya, you're lucky tonight! There's young blood out in this park, walking alone! Probably lost or something, or just very late getting home from a boyfriend's house!" He grinned and took off, Jou jogging after him speedily.  
  
"You mean that you can tell age and if they're a boy or a girl just by smelling!?"  
  
"It's a skill learned with a bit of time, boy! You'll learn it sooner or later!"  
  
Adaeus suddenly crouched behind a shrub, and when Jou came up, he yanked him down beside him. "There...coming quickly...a young girl!" Jou watched quietly, his lightly glowing eyes catching almost every movement around him. Soon enough, his ears caught the sound of sneakers walking briskly, and a red-headed girl walked into sight a moment later.  
  
"There she is boy....we'll worry about doing your own catching later, right now, I just want you to learn to feed. At the same time, we'll jump. Are you ready? Of course you are! Now come...........one.....two......."  
  
~*~  
  
Brood: OOOOH!! Jou's first hunt! Kudos to Wingleader Sora Jade for guessing correctly that Jou was turned into a vampy!!! Yay! AND she's also the prizewinner who's in this story!  
  
Zutsokaki: She told her.  
  
Brood: DID NOT!!! Now do me a favor and lose your vocal cords in some violent accident!  
  
Ooh, and my birthday is on Monday, December 15th, everyone! I'm turning 17!!! And my friend Jes's birthday was on Friday, and he's 17 too! Yay for birthdays!  
  
Zutsokaki: She's telling you so she can get presents.  
  
Brood: WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT THOSE VOCAL CORDS!? NO I'm not telling them all just so they'll give me presents! I'm telling them because it's my birthday and I'll tell if I want to!  
  
Zutsokaki: *humming* It's my birthday and I'll tell if I want to, tell if I want to, tell if I want to....you would tell too if it happened to yoooouuuuuuuuu........  
  
Brood: I don't even wanna know how he learned that song.......*sweatdrop* Reviews, everyone! 


End file.
